Sting Says Diddy Hasn’t Tarnished ‘Every Breath You Take’ Despite Arrest

Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even though it’s somewhat tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs forever.

In a new interview with Los Angeles Times released Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked about his feelings about his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” — now that Combs faces a trial. for numerous allegations of sexual abuse, extortion and more.

“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what happened (with Diddy). But it doesn’t tarnish the song for me at all. It’s still my song.”

The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 the year it was released, and remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the charts. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious BIG featuring Faith Evans and 112, with an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at no. 1.

Diddy was arrested on Sept. 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, and bribery, and was immediately remanded in custody and denied bail multiple times as he awaits trial on May 5, 2025. The latest update on his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge denied his “unprecedented” and “unfounded” request for a gag order to be issued against his alleged victims and their attorneys on the grounds that they made “inflammatory extrajudicial statements intended to assassinate Mr. Combs’ character in the press.”

“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “However, this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protection afforded by the First Amendment to those who claim to be Combs’ victims.”

Meanwhile, Sting has toured again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a setup not unlike his three-person lineup with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — and the “We’ll Be Together” singer is aware of the irony. “I never left the police,” he said while speaking to police Times. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record – like the others had done – and enjoyed it more than I did being in a band.

“And here I am again,” he continued with his return to form. “My whole mode is surprise. I don’t want people to be completely sure what I’m going to do next. That’s the essence of music for me. And nobody expected a trio at this point.”